"This legislation excludes citizens from the public sphere, it reinforces the marginalization of Canadian Muslims, and it risks emboldening those seeking to sow division and hatred between Canadians to amplify an 'us versus them' narrative," NCCM Public Affairs Coordinator Eve Torres said.

But unlike Muslim women in Quebec who wear the niqab or burka, these women can easily ride public transportation and access government services without being asked to remove a garment that is fundamentally faith-based — a winter scarf after all, is still just a scarf.

"We denounce any state action which limits the ability of peoples to wear religious clothing as it is not the role nor responsibility of governments to control women's and men's bodies and forms of dress," the council says in the report.